Last night, Houston, TX hosted the return of Ice Cube’s BIG3 League. The BIG3 gained a few new players including Baron Davis, Metta World Peace, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, Drew Gordon, Chris “Birdman” Anderson, and Nate Robinson.
The city came out for the league’s opening night, including hometown heroes, Tracy McGrady, Paul Wall, Trae the Truth, Johnny Dang, and Slim Thug. Ice Cube sat courtside along with Mayor Sylvester Turner and legend Clyde Drexler. During halftime, the Mayor declared June 22 “Clyde Drexler Day”, his actual birthday.
The nostalgic series of games and events came to an abrupt swerve at the end of Game 4. Last years reigning champs Trilogy – who won last season’s series 10-0 – lost their first game of season 2 to the revamped Tri State. Nate Robinson scored the final 3-pt shot, bringing the score to 50-34. BIG3 games are played to 50 points, so a devastating loss to Trilogy.
After shooting the winning shot, Nate Robinson stormed the Trilogy bench, aiming to destroy some interesting property of player Rashad McCants: a Joker mask and Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet.
There’s no telling why McCants brought these to the game, maybe a scare tactic, but Nate Robinson wanted to make it clear they were coming for the title. The two immediately began to exchange words, then shoves, eventually separated by security.
The rest of Team Trilogy were also not taking the loss very well. Team captain Kenyon Martin’s mom actually stormed the court after the loss and he had some loud words for her after the game.
It was an interesting end to a long night, but fans could agree on one thing: the BIG3 is definitely getting some real off-season attention.
Hit the flip to see what happened between Johnson and McCants.